Following the trial of Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, accused and cleared of fraudulently spending £685,000 on company credit cards, Nigella Lawson has angrily said her experience in the witness box had been "deeply disturbing". The trial had turned into an attempt, she said, to destroy her reputation. Her children had been besmirched "without any real protection or representation". "For this I cannot forgive the court process."

The court process and the issue of justice for witnesses, frequently cross-examined with ferocity, has been questioned repeatedly. Talented violinist Frances Andrade tragically killed herself after giving evidence in the trial of her abuser Michael Brewer. "Girl 3", raped and sold for sex when she was 13, faced questions from five different sets of lawyers over five days in the trial of seven men from the Oxford Bullfinch gang, jailed for a total of 95 years last June. She refused to testify in further cases. Sir Peter Fahy, chief con stable of Greater Manchester police, has also expressed concerns about the treatment of vulnerable court witnesses in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. So is change required?

The short answer is that, gruelling as it may be for some individuals, justice has to be seen to be done. Fairness for witnesses matters, but so too does fairness for the defendant. In the case of the Grillo sisters, a conviction would have meant a lengthy prison sentence, a criminal record and their futures sabotaged. They had been women of good character. Their lawyers had a duty to explore circumstances that, far from being spurious, were supported by Ms Lawson's own admission that she had used cocaine several times and smoked marijuana.

Counsel are trained to observe boundaries – and judges have the right to intervene. How often that happens, and in what circumstances, deserves examination. One issue that such an inquiry would need to address is the make-up of our courts. The fine balance between equity and empathy for witnesses and justice for the defendant is better maintained when judges and counsel are more representative of the society of which they are part.